(Clearwisdom.net) According to NewsMax.net's report on Mar. 30, 2004, "Amnesty International has just reported that Internet related offenses in China increased by 60 percent in 2003. This crackdown included the imprisonment or detaining of 54 people."

The report stated, "The Chinese government requires its citizens to log on through state-controlled routers in order to restrict them from viewing "subversive" or "dangerous" content. In China, if you search for terms like "Taiwan," "Tibet," "democracy," "dissident," "Falun Gong," and "human rights," your request is denied.

If one persists in such searches, promotes online petitions, disseminates pro-democracy information, or raises such taboo subjects as the SARS outbreak, you may find yourself detained or imprisoned.

In a May 2003 report, Reporters Without Borders - a leading free-press advocacy group - investigated Internet use in China by posing as a Chinese Internet user for one month. The report finds that approximately 70 percent of controversial content was suppressed.

The report also describes the "manhunts" that the government uses to track down violators as part of the "Golden Shield" policy, which began in the late 1990s to stifle dissent. It is estimated that 60 laws and regulations exist regarding use of the Internet, and that even well intentioned sites such as Yahoo! are merely "police auxiliaries."

The outlook is not improving. Liu Yuzhu, a Ministry of Culture official, told Amnesty that by 2005, all cafes will be required to install an "Internet cafe technology management system requiring the whole nation to adopt the same standard and each province the same software." The software will help the Ministry of Culture collect data on Internet users and alert authorities when forbidden content is accessed.

Of course, the communist Chinese government does not limit itself to Internet users. The U.S. State Department in its 2003 Annual Report on Human Rights Abuses documented the existence of "re-education through labor camps" where approximately 250,000 citizens are currently detained for allegedly committing crimes against the Communist Party."

Reference

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/3/30/104350.shtml

Category: Opinion & Perspective